Thursday, May 14, 2015

1. Try to fit somewhere you don't belong (like a carnivore at a PETA rally, or an atheist in church)
2. Spend obscene amounts of time pretending that the internet is where life happens.
3. Quit doing both of those things.

The more solitary life has a ton of upside. Last week I read Sam Harris' short book Free Will, which argues that it doesn't exist. In any form. I'm still thinking about it, but so far I find it persuasive (but of course, I had no choice). Today I started Steven Pinker's 800 page behemoth, The Better Angels of Our Nature, which tries to make the case that we live in the last violent time in human history. Books are great. I wish I hadn't neglected them as much as I have.

I am finding that without the worries about in-group approval, the way I think about ideas is changing. It's been ages since I discovered a new idea, and bounced it off someone in real life rather than throwing it into the cesspool of social media to be devoured or liked. This is how people change, I think. We have epiphanies of our own, on our own time, and the space to bat them around for awhile. Some of my epiphanies are antagonistic towards my liberal tendencies. Others are health or family related. But with the scope of my universe lessened as much as it has, these ideas can be given more mind-space, and room to grow. Suffice to say, I'm happier than I've been in a long time.

One aspect of the shrunken universe is almost nobody reads these entries, which I love, truly. If you're one of the few, here's a band I fell in love with a few months ago. They've been great company.